Ruth
Goldman from the Merck Family Fund
attended the Council meeting. Ruth
introduced herself, saying that the
Merck Family Fund is considering
matching the grant to BNAF from the
Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund and
that she just had a quick tour of the
Greenway with Valerie and Lauri,
which she appreciated very much.
After introductions, we began the
meeting with voting to accept the
meeting minutes from the March
meeting.
2.
Goals for the Next Three Years
Valerie
provided an update on the
organization that will accept the
$100,000 from TPL. After the last
Council meeting Valerie wrote a
letter to TPL, which she handed out
to the Council. The letter summarizes
discussions with legal counsel and
decisions that the Council made at
the last meeting. To accept these
funds (as well as additional funds in
the future), we are proposing to
create a supporting organization for
the Greenway, initially under BNAF's
auspices and then moving as quickly
as the IRS allows and the Council
desires to independent status, with
the support of BNAF as needed. The
organization will be called the
Friends of The East Boston Greenway;
its purpose will be to protect,
preserve and enhance the East Boston
Greenway and its activities will
include advocacy and support for
maintenance, security, programming,
management and special projects.
TPL's
response to BNAF proposed that TPL
should restrict its grant to the
Friends as endowment. Council members
were in agreement with this
restriction for the start up grant,
believing others would be more
willing to give to us knowing that we
were not squandering our seed money.
BNAF will compose a proposal for TPL
which provides the purpose of the
Friends; a statement if its proposed
activities; a description of its
initial and ultimate governing
structure and proposed membership,
evidence of its 501(c)3 status and an
indication from the Parks Department
that they support this.
At
this point, however, we must provide
a list of activities that is specific
and at the same time broad enough to
serve the organization. Mark Warren
will draft a proposal. Questions that
address the budget for the
organization, the size of the
endowment, as well as costs for
maintaining, securing and programming
the Greenway will be dealt with as we
develop the Management Plan. We will
invite Henry Lee from the Friends of
the Public Garden and someone from
the Friends of Belle Isle Marsh to
come tell us how they manage.
3.
Greenway - Conrail Corridor from
Marginal to Porter Street
MHD
has issued the Notice to Proceed to
Fleming Brothers, the contractor for
the Greenway from Marginal to Porter
Street. A preconstruction meeting is
scheduled for May 18 and Lauri will
be attending. It is likely that we
will see the Contractor start work on
site in June.
There
is a groundswell of Bremen Street
neighbors that want the Scolly
building demolished because they are
afraid it will become a problem since
there is no designated use for it.
The Council believes strongly the
building is worth saving and
requested that Valerie write a letter
to the city and state to request that
one or the other release an RFP for
letters of interest.
With
respect to the connection to Piers
Park, the Council reconfirmed that it
wants an uninterrupted path from
Bremen Street Park to Piers Park and
is against extending Orleans Street
into any development on Pier 1. With
current planning scenarios there
could be an additional 800 cars
introduced into this area. It means a
tremendous amount of traffic and
raises serious safety issues. The
uninterrupted Greenway becomes even
more critical. The Council asked
Valerie to write letters to
Massport's Peter Blute, Tom O'Brien
at the BRA and city councilors
Murphy, Roache and Scappichio.
Arlene
has arranged a meeting with the
Boston Society of Architects on next
Monday. We are going to give them a
tour of the site and request help
from the Urban Design Committee
Design to help the Council in
evaluating development proposals as
they unfold.
4.
Greenway - Conrail Corridor/Bremen
Street Park
Mark
Warren and Joanne Zambuto reported on
the meeting at the Central Artery
offices that they attended with
Valerie and Lauri. Issues discussed
included the security building, the
Greenway extension from Prescott to
Bremen and even the airport T
station.
There
is a very important CAT project park
design and art update meeting this
Wednesday, April 28, 1998. Valerie
passed out her letter to the CA/T
project which lists outstanding
issues and provides a few comments on
the 75% construction documents. The
Council took a look at the
construction drawings to refresh
their memories about outstanding
issues. Some of the most important
issues include the design of the
pedestrian entrance to Memorial
Stadium from the Gove Street
neighborhood, the designs for the
under viaduct areas, the McKay
sculpture, the design of the security
building in Bremen Street Park, the
tunnel to the T station and design of
the Greenway extension from Prescott
to Frankfort. The council also wants
the state to issue a request for
letters of interest for the Scolly
building.
6.
Updates:
The
East Boston Greenway received an award
from Healthy Boston. Joanne Zambuto
was at the ceremony and accepted it
on behalf of the Council.
Amelia
Earhart did land in East Boston
on March 25. About 30 people
attended, including a family from the
western suburbs, who as children met
Amelia as she knitted on the deck of
the Jeffries Point Yacht Club. It was
a very convincing performance by
character actress Jessa Piaia.
Members
from both the East Boston and
Neponset River Greenway Councils
toured portions of two Rhode
Island bike paths, one in
construction and the other already
operating. Connie Carbone and Arlene
Gehring went to the Waterfront
Center Conference in Providence.
